Hospital wanted to force husband to leave hospital

[Qz Sioux]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Texas

My husband was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in January. We are still waiting to be seen by a cancer hospital for his treatment due to not having any insurance. In May I had to take him back to the emergency room (what the doctor told us to do) because he could not eat or drink and was in horrible pain. He was admitted and the nursing staff said that the doctor that put the stint in his esophagus would be in to see him on Monday. He didn't show, instead, one of the other doctors in the practice showed up and basically told my husband that he needed to just go home and wait for the financial help to come in from the cancer hospital. My husband told him that he was in major pain, and something needed to be done and that he wanted to see the doctor that did his surgery. Later that day the attending (ER) doctor came in, saw my husband and left (just basically looked at him and saw he was breathing. He only asked my husband if he was in any pain. About an hour later, the nurse came in and told my husband that the (ER) doctor told her to take my husband off the delotid and put him on morphine at a low dose and to extend the amount of time between doses. If my husband continued to stay, he would lower the dose of the morphine even more, and extend the time between doses. She told us that the doctor would eventually stop all pain medications.

What if any legal rights do we have in this situation? I did take my husband to another hospital and then he was transferred to another hospital 2 hours away, but they cannot treat him because we do not live in that county.

Thank You

 

[justalayman]

Is this a private (for profit) hospital or a county or state subsidized hospital?

If the first, the have no duty to treat beyond stabilizing a patient in an emergency situation. Once stabilized, the patient can be discharged. You cannot force a private hospital to provide thousands of dollars of treatment for free.

 

[Qz Sioux]

Is this a private (for profit) hospital or a county or state subsidized hospital?

If the first, the have no duty to treat beyond stabilizing a patient in an emergency situation. Once stabilized, the patient can be discharged. You cannot force a private hospital to provide thousands of dollars of treatment for free.

You know, I'm not sure about that. What I am sure about is that it is a not-for-profit teaching hospital for the University of Texas. I would think that it was State subsidized. I can look into that if it really makes a difference.

 

[justalayman]

I'll have to get a bit researchy on this to see if a university hospital would fall under any charity hospital requirements. I suspect not but not positive.

I was attempting to infer what is often referred to a "county hospital" where it is basically a government funded facility. It's where people with no money often end up for treatment. Some states do not have that type of facility. I hadn't thought about it and how it might apply to a school hospital though.

 

[ecmst12]

This really doesn't sound right. If they want to discharge the patient because he is stable, they're just going to discharge him, they're not going to withhold pain meds until the patient leaves on his own. It doesn't make any sense at all.

 

[justalayman]

You're right but consider this:

The tenor of OP's posts are that she believes hospital must provide services. Ever seen a patient or family that said "we aren't leaving until [patient] gets [what they need]". A hospital having to physically evict a patient is not something any of them wish to do so, what choice do they have.

I suspect it went more like:

well, we are not going to provide [treatment]. We'll wean him from [pain meds] (many pain meds do have very severe withdrawal symptoms if stopped abruptly). When he reaches a point it becomes unbearable, if he wants treatment, he is just going to have to go where they will treat him.


So, did they say they were going to withhold pain meds in that statement? Sure. Does it appear to be cruel? From a patients perspective, yes but we have to realize the hospital does not have to provide treatment and rather than simply and physically removing him from the hospital, they start to withhold pain management medication in an effort to cause patient to seek treatment elsewhere.

I would suspect the hospital admin had made any effort they could to assist patient in finding other facilities. While hospitals are in the business of medicine, always realize, they are a business and spending money without a chance to recoup it will simply put them out of business. Then everybody suffers.

 

[betachains]

You're right but consider this:

The tenor of OP's posts are that she believes hospital must provide services. Ever seen a patient or family that said "we aren't leaving until [patient] gets [what they need]". A hospital having to physically evict a patient is not something any of them wish to do so, what choice do they have.

I suspect it went more like:

well, we are not going to provide [treatment]. We'll wean him from [pain meds] (many pain meds do have very severe withdrawal symptoms if stopped abruptly). When he reaches a point it becomes unbearable, if he wants treatment, he is just going to have to go where they will treat him.


So, did they say they were going to withhold pain meds in that statement? Sure. Does it appear to be cruel? From a patients perspective, yes but we have to realize the hospital does not have to provide treatment and rather than simply and physically removing him from the hospital, they start to withhold pain management medication in an effort to cause patient to seek treatment elsewhere.

I would suspect the hospital admin had made any effort they could to assist patient in finding other facilities. While hospitals are in the business of medicine, always realize, they are a business and spending money without a chance to recoup it will simply put them out of business. Then everybody suffers.

Hospitals don't work like that. The profit/non-profit designation doesn't come into play at the bedside. No one is going to withhold narcs from a patient with esophageal cancer.